In praise of the best moments in Better Call Saul season 6 part 2, a show with no Emmys (so far)

This article contains minor spoilers for the final season of Better Call Saul.

Ever since the aftermath of the 74th Primetime Emmys was aired; fans of the AMC series Better Call Saul have been in an uproar. It’s pretty understandable, as the show has been nominated a whopping 46 times since it premiered.

So far, it’s won nothing.

On critical opinion screeds, fan forums, and entertainment discussion boards like Reddit, there’s understandably plenty of conversation noise. The Whys and Hows, centered around how the likely reason is that unlike Breaking Bad (from whence the character of morally flexible lawyer Saul Goodman is from) Emmy voters really just don’t like Better Call Saul.

For context, Goodman actor Bob Odenkirk has earned five Emmys nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series since the series started in 2015 and ended with season 6 part 2 in August 2022. Odenkirk lost to Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae at the latest Emmys.

Fans were especially dismayed by that, since Odenkirk had collapsed on-set and suffered a heart attack while filming the final season in July 2021. There was huge suspense when Rhea Seehorn (who plays Goodman’s partner Kim Wexler) bagged a long-awaited nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

She looked poised to break the “Emmy curse” of BCS at the latest Emmys. But Seehorn lost to Julia Garner of Ozark, her third consecutive Emmy victory.

In light of these snubs, fans and critics have come together in rare agreement that Better Call Saul has never gotten the Emmy Awards respect it rightfully deserves.

It’s since been compared to critical snubs of other criminally underappreciated entertainment pieces. Like how Metallica lost to Jethro Tull at the Grammys.

Or how Parks and Recreation got 16 Emmy nominations and zero wins. Ditto with David Simon’s The Wire, with only two Emmy nominations and no wins for its entire run.

It’s certainly easy to see how BCS’s nuanced storytelling and compelling flow of character development can be both rewarding and frustrating sometimes. Like Jimmy McGill himself, the series has been an underdog story of triumph that has pulled off that extraordinary feat of becoming its own unique entity.

All of that despite being a spinoff of the original Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould-made show Breaking Bad. It isn’t exactly bereft of critical plaudits.

It’s been feted with Saturn Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globes, and the Critics’ Choice Television Awards. Still, an Emmy win would have been the best kind of one-for-the-road of the final season with the cast and crew riding off into the TV sunset.

But wait! There’s still a sliver of hope for the underdog BCS at next year’s 75th Primetime Emmys.

How? The period for 2022’s ceremony only ran until May 31.

BCS’s final season was truncated in two parts, with the second half of season 6 still eligible for next year, at the 2023 awards ceremony.

BCS season 6, episodes 8 through 13 can still compete and should be considered again for many of the categories, since they ran from July 11 to August 15. In praise of the excellent work that the creators, and the rest of the cast and crew have put into the final season, here’s my top three favorite moments from episodes 8 to13.

Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 12 – Kim at the airport bus

In the episode aptly titled “Waterworks” there’s a scene of moving gravitas where Kim Wexler travels to Albuquerque to hand a copy of an affidavit she’s written. This is essentially her confession to somebody who doesn’t know what’s become of their loved one.

On the tram at the airport, actor Rhea Seehorn’s sudden outburst of cathartic tears is the kind of bravura performance that hits such a rich emotive chord it almost literally pulls it out of the viewer. Seehorn has since discussed the technicalities of how she executed this scene in some interviews.

Despite breaking it down, the gestalt, the sheer astounding magic of watching that performance had me applauding on my couch. And, yes, okay, in tears myself.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!

Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 8 – Gus battles Lalo

It’s not often that outré violence occurs in the world of Saul Goodman. The whole con of the amoral attorney is to deal with criminals yet keep them at arm’s reach through his legal expertise.

Which is why this rare moment of Gus Fring versus Lalo Salamanca versus Mike Erhmentraut in a rigadoon of gang fighting is such a rare treat on the episode titled “Point and Shoot.” When Lalo throws a monkey wrench in the best laid plans of Saul and Kim by killing Howard, chaos ensues.

Kim ends up almost shooting Mike at the safehouse. Mike deduces that it was all a setup to get Gus out in the open, relatively unprotected at the laundry complex.

Lalo ambushes Gus, killing his bodyguards and forcing his rival to show him the huge lab he’s been building. But we are shown how much willpower and preparation pay off, when Gus cuts off the lights and kills Lalo with a gun he’d hidden in one of the heavy construction vehicles for just such a contingency.

What a refreshing high point to remind us that the use of force can simply make all the complex conniving of the lawyers useless and downright pathetic.

Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 13 – Saul’s closing oration

This episode is structured like A Christmas Carol. The astounding closer of the series is titled “Saul Gone,” where Saul is visited by the ghosts of his past.

These ghosts are Mike the hitman, Walt the drug lord, and of course Chuck his lost brother. Though those are all emotive notes in the final descent of the cornered lawyer, they all subtly build to the crescendo of Saul’s turnaround and confession at his final hearing in court.

Odenkirk outdoes many of the high points of this episode, already full of great moments, with what must be one of the grandest monologues of recent TV history. It’s an epic closing statement, a tribute to the monolith of criminal lawyering that the former Jimmy McGill has built to make him Saul Goodman.

Don’t take my word for it. Go on and watch.

All six seasons of Better Call Saul can be streamed on Netflix.